July 13, 2011

Dear Editor,

Back in March, 2011 you generously offered under, "News in Brief", a forum for the residents of Perham to post public comments, as the town of Perham has chosen to abolish public comment/participation during selectmen's meetings, (unless those comments bolster their position). I thank you and will avail myself of your offer at this time. I will attempt to limit myself to only two areas highlighting recent ways in which the selectmen are guilty of not following the rules of their office and violating the rights of the residents of Perham. Although, because of the selectmen's playing loose with the laws that govern their positions and behaviors, sadly, I could easily fill your paper. Additionally, I would like to state that anything contained in this letter is my opinion based on an unfolding of events and direct knowledge of those events. I hope that the readers will view them as such and honor my right to express my opinions in this public forum. This is a necessity, as there are few options available because of this arbitrary change in protocol.

I would like to take this opportunity to share a bit of my personal history as a resident of the small town of Perham, (approx. 425 souls), as well as my experience with selectmen's meetings and the, "public comment portion" of those meetings. "Public comments" were not written into the agenda of selectmen's meetings until fairly recently. Since I have lived here, the public was always allowed to contribute to the meeting especially when the selectmen were unclear on issues, procedures or history etc. It appears to me that since the public participation has been eliminated, many more violations have taken place, if that is at all possible.

My family has lived in Perham for just shy of 8 years and have owned our farm, (the old Hartson Blackstone Farmstead) for about 9 years. My husband and I moved here with 8 of our 10 children, (2 being grown and on their own), 7 of our sons still reside here on the farm, while our 27 year old daughter lives in Caribou. My mother and brother live on the farmstead in a separate small house on the property, as they joined us some 5+ years ago after the death of my father. We have put everything we have into this farm; blood, sweat and tears have been our companions since our arrival here. Yet, it is worth all of it, if we can be allowed to live in peace. Our taxes are up to date on the properties we own in the town. I mention these points as to demonstrate my families’ investment and commitment to the wellbeing of the town and its inhabitants. We did not take this move lightly. We did our homework and chose an out of the way property in, "God's Country", with minimal services, a part-time highway department and low taxes. All was well, until a changing of the political guard took place some 5+ years ago and the town of Perham started living "large", and certainly beyond the means of the bulk of the residents of Perham. That being said the taxes have risen but the town services have not improved as one would expect. Along with the increases in taxes and budgetary items, life in Perham has gotten harder for many. That is a story for another day.

This little town is vastly different from the one we chose to set down roots in and I might add quite a bit meaner as well! The antics perpetrated by those elected to serve the best interest of their community might be called criminal by some. In the almost 8 years of living here I have never missed a town meeting and vote and I believe I only missed 1 special town vote, held during a freak October snow storm when my car left the road on my way to that meeting. I have seldom missed the twice monthly selectmen's meetings or special selectmen's meetings, to the chagrin of some.

Until recently, (within the last year plus), public comments/participation were permitted and in fact encouraged, and many times the selectmen solicited information, opinions and commentary from community members in attendance. I imagine a partial reason for doing so was due to the fact that the bulk of the select people voted into office had never attended or attended only a handful of selectmen's meetings prior to holding the office and welcomed community assistance because of their lack of knowledge in many areas. Several selectmen had not adopted the habit of attending even the yearly town meeting, and did not have a workable understanding of their duties, or of the issues facing the town, as well as little historical understanding of how our town worked. They welcomed suggestions etc as the audience, for the most part, had more information and a better understanding of what needed to be attended to in town then they themselves did.

I served as a Planning Board member and secretary and also served on our Perham's Recreation and Events Committee from its inception until it's dissolution, which is another story for another day. I am a member of the Perham Ladies and part of the Welcome Wagon Committee for that group. My family and I have volunteered countless hours of our time, labor, using our own equipment, fuel and resources etc to support most every event that has taken place in Perham since we have lived here. My family has been active in organizing and supplying meals to the sick and bereaved as well as working with the Perham Ladies to cook and serve at after funeral functions. We do this because of our love for this town and its people. Community building has always been at the heart of what my family has done here. I hope that the above will reflect my sincere caring and concern for my adopted home. None of my complaints come from a place of malice, as it is my sincerest hope that our town can get itself righted and begin to heal and start to represent the people of this community. I refuse to believe that our town is a lost cause, as some have suggested. I do believe we need to clean house and elect people who are better informed on their responsibilities and clear on the legalities of their position in order to represent this town in a fair and unbiased manner. Suggested reading for the selectmen and administration should include but not be limited to, The Constitution of the United States, The Bill Of Rights, The Maine State Constitution, The State of Maine Ordinances, The Town of Perham Ordinances, The Town of Perham's Comprehensive Plan, and very importantly the Maine State Statutes.

It's my opinion unless one understands the laws, rights and responsibilities of any office one holds, that person can do no justice to their position nor serve the needs of their constituents in a fair and appropriate manner. Much harm can be served up through ignorance.

As to the lack of public comment at meetings, I would like to say for the record that over the last year or so the selectmen have abolished and reinstituted public participation entirely at whim, and based on my personal observation, their decision as to whether comments are to be allowed or not, has been used as a tool to direct the meetings in a way that suits their needs and bolsters their agendas. Certainly public commentary has not proven to be for the benefit or concern for the needs of the community members effected by their decisions and practices. The above being said:

Comment #1

It is my understanding that charitable donations made by our town are to be included in an article and voted on and approved by the towns people at a yearly town meeting. This has not always been the case in the town of Perham. Two incidences come immediately to mind. One in which the Chairman, (who resigned abruptly quite recently, absconding with the whole of his yearly stipend while only serving 5 months of that year), made a motion to "donate", $500.00 to a local citizen, (who is now Chairman) to have her newsletter, "Perham Notes", serve as a forum for our town's newsletter and include postings from the town office in the local quarterly "for profit" paper. The present Chairman, had already started this town newspaper in the hopes of generating income through advertisement, for herself and her family. Up until that time responsibility for town updates, notices, newsletters were the domain of the town administrator. I attended this meeting and raised several concerns to the selectmen that what they were proposing was not entirely legal. To the best of my knowledge a donation by the town could not be made to a "for profit" entity adding to that it did not have the vote and support of the towns people. To this the Chairman assured the other selectmen that if this was indeed the case he would reimburse the town from his own money. At a later date, he admitted that he was wrong to make such a donation on behalf of the town without proper voter approval.. Needless to say, the selectmen's reimbursement of the $500.00 never materialized and to add insult to injury, the "Perham Notes" printed on an erratic schedule, not quarterly as was part of the original deal with the selectmen folded shortly thereafter. Not a good use of our tax dollars, in my opinion. As an aside, the Chairman refused the selectmen's request for him to return the stipend he had requested and received without serving the remainder of his time. It is my belief that the selectmen should have been suspicious of his request for 7 months payment in advance, but in all fairness, they were probably distracted by their pursuit of certain individuals in town that they were trying in the courts for failure to obtain a $35.00 building permit on a "PORTABLE" chicken coop. I suppose this appeared to our elected officials like a good use of time and resources. While they were in hot pursuit of $35.00 many important things fell by the wayside. Pennywise and pound foolishness is alive and well in Perham.

Another donation that was made by our selectmen, that was not in accordance with the rules, was a donation of $100.00 to our local high school, for a trip through Destination Imagination, a worthwhile cause to be sure. But not one that should have been approved outside of town meeting. How the selectmen reached the decision to support this request was because last year when the children went they voted amongst themselves to donate $150.00 to the cause, again, I believe in violation of our rights outside of town meeting. I suppose if one breaks the rules and gets away with it, there does not seem to be a good reason to not continue doing so. I reiterate, the trip for the children was worthy but it was also worthy of a town vote. These are not decisions to be left up to the selectmen. In the running of any town business there is always a need for checks and balances. This appears to be a foreign concept as of late, here in Perham.

We have an article devoted to requests by non-profit organizations to our town each year at town meeting, that the community gets to vote up or down. Obviously, there is some reason that the selectmen perceived this request as different. If I was cynical I might point out that last year the children who attended had strong connections to the town office. Again, this year, the 1 child from town who attended was the child of a selectman. One town selectman suggested a $50.00 donation. With this the town administrator announced that the amount was too cheap and said that $150.00 should be donated just like last year. The town administrator was comfortable interjecting these comments even though her comments and requests are outside the realm of her position in relation to her attendance at the selectmen's meetings and even though she is not a resident of this town and is not a voting member of this community. Not surprisingly, the selectmen amended their motion from $50.00 to $100 but rejected the administrator's proposal of $150.00. It is shocking the amount of blatant violations this one small group can make in the course of doing what should be the townspeople's business.

Comment #2

The town of Perham residents voted to adopt a set of ordinances back in 1996 over and above what the state requires. A local well respected attorney took a look at this set of ordinances back in October, 2000 per a citizens request and found the ordinances to be, "extremely deficient in content and potentially unconstitutional." Over eleven years later and nothing has been corrected in relation to these code ordinances. Why should a small thing like the Constitution or the violation of such document concern the selectmen of Perham? I for one, cannot think of anything too much more important for the elected officials of a town to be concerned with, then the rights of the people they are duty bound and sworn to represent. I realize these are complicated issues and I have gone into more detail than I expected to, so I shall try my best to wrap this up, with a promise to revisit this issue as the rest of the story unfolds. My synopsis is just the tip of the iceberg. Suffice it to say, that town ordinances are being selectively applied to certain residents who have not toed the line. I believe the phrase is, "cherry picking", which residents of Perham ordinances apply to, what ordinances will the town enforce and all of this is done with a dismissive wave of the hand by the powers that be. They continue to thumb their noses at procedure, protocol, consistency and fairness . It is sad to admit that although folks in town are not happy about the behavior of our elected as well as our town office, they hesitate to speak out for fear of reprisal. I cannot say as I blame them as I know firsthand what they are capable of. I am hopeful as I am beginning to see a small turning of the tide. My feeling is we hang together or we will surely hang alone. I am anticipating that the new Attorney General will become involved in our situation and help get this town back on the right track.

Some closing thoughts; elected officials should never behave as bullies, or put their needs before those of the rest of their community nor abuse the powers of their offices to cause hardship on the folks who they are duty bound to serve and serve fairly. They should never use their positions to act out of anger and personal vengeance and should use the limited monetary resources of the small towns they serve for the good of their community, not to settle petty, personal grievances. I need to believe this is possible, and I am working diligently towards that end, along with several other concerned and committed citizens in the area. Through public awareness and utilizing group meetings such as the. "Moving Perham Forward Meetings", that we've held every 1 to 3 months, people are beginning to see that they can affect change for the better by knowledge and involvement. Public awareness followed by outrage and action is the only way, common folk can ever fight, "city hall" so to speak. It is my hope that by exposing the practices taking place in our town that we can work together to build a better future for the WHOLE of our community not a select chosen few. Thank you for taking the time to read this through.

Peace and Prayers

Debra Viola,

Fortune Smiles Farmstead, LLC

Perham, Maine